New Delhi: Israel on Friday rejected as false and “grossly distorted” accusations brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that its military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide campaign against Palestinians.
It argued that it was acting in self-defence, emphasising that it was fighting Hamas, not the Palestinian population. Israel urged the ICJ to dismiss the case as groundless and reject South Africa’s request to order a halt to the offensive, as reported by Reuters.
The Times of Israel reported lawyer Malcolm Shaw as saying that South Africa presented a “distorted picture” of comments made by Israeli politicians on the war in order to establish ‘genocidal intent’ by Israel.
“To produce random quotes which are not in conformity with government policy is misleading at best,” said Shaw.
On Thursday, South Africa told the top UN court that Israel’s aerial and ground offensive – which killed almost 24,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities – aimed to bring about “the destruction of the population” of Gaza, Reuters reported.
However, Israel rejected these accusations, saying it respected international law and had a right to defend itself.
According to Al Jazeera, Galit Raguan, acting director of the international justice division at Israel’s Justice Ministry, blamed Hamas for the high civilian toll in Gaza and said that Israel had not bombed hospitals.
“The appalling suffering of civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, is first and foremost the result of Hamas’s strategy,” Reuters reported Tal Becker, the Israeli foreign ministry’s legal adviser, as saying in court.
Gilad Noam, Israel’s deputy attorney general for international affairs, argued against the use of provisional measures, citing reasons such as Hamas being designated a terrorist organisation by Israel and other countries. As per Al Jazeera, he also pointed to Hamas’s involvement in a large-scale terrorist attack.
Christopher Staker, an international lawyer previously on the criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, claimed Israel had facilitated humanitarian aid.
A ruling on South Africa’s urgent request for provisional measures, either in favour or against, is expected from the court later this month, news reports said. It will not rule at that time on the genocide accusations. Those proceedings could take years.